Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle

This book is fun and can be read over a period of time because each chapter is a different story

This is cute - a bit too silly for me, but S *really* enjoyed it! Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has some very unusual cures for what ails the children in this book. While her cures are effective in the book, some of them were a bit creepy/scary!

Meet Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, a widow who never had children. All the children of the neighborhood flock to her unique house to play. More importantly, the mothers call her because she has a knack for "curing" whatever ails the children, from talking back to parents, to not picking up toys. One of my

Show More

favorites is the Radish Cure. A delightful read.

Show Less

Yes, I know they're for kids. But I love them. Plus, I just recently completed the set, so I figure I can reread them all again now, and then I probably won't touch them until I have my own kids. I think my favorite story in this one is the Raddish cure.

It's interesting to read this as an adult

Show More

and notice the consistencies in parental dynamics of the families with problem children. Mom notices the problem and deals with it, but first she calls all the other moms and asks them what to do. Dad either a) tells the mother nothing is actually wrong and it's all in her head, or b) takes one look at the problem and heads out to golf with his buddies. Maybe if the dads in this town paid more attention to their kids they wouldn't have so many problems, hm?

But then again, it was the 1950s. And at least the problems were easily solved.

Show Less

Kearsten says: This is cute - a bit too silly for me, but my five-year-old *really* enjoyed it! Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has some very unusual cures for what ails the children in this book. While her cures are effective in the book, some of them were a bit creepy/scary!

One of my favorite childhood series about a woman who has a magic touch for curing children of their nasty habits and bad attitudes. A hilarious read.

These are marvelous tales.

Kids will love the magical element of this fantasy book as well as the humor. Short chapters are good for emerging readers.

These books are kind of oddly meta to read as a kid. Like, you're reading about how grownups are dealing with kids and their less-than-likeable behaviors. What is the goal here? Purely to entertain? To let kids know how they're supposed to be acting? I read these as a child and remember thinking

Show More

either "that's something I don't do" or "yeah, I do that, and I don't care." I'll read the rest eventually.

Show Less

I haven't read this book since (I think) second grade, but after picking up a used copy with a thought of passing it along to a friend's child, I was recaptured by the simple stories and the 1940s viewpoint.

We can't even picture the possibility of someone like Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle -- the odd little

Show More

lady with the upside down house where all the children love to play, the lady all the hapless parents call for advice and "cures" for their children's bad behavior. Today, an older lady like that would be considered, at a minimum, mentally questionable and, at worst, dangerous. With so many experts giving conflicting advice to parents about their children's behavior -- in fact, so many conflicting opinions about what IS bad behavior in children -- Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's odd but oddly sensible cures, which depend on the idea that a child allowed to indulge bad behavior until the negative consequences are apparent to them, could be considered almost cruel.

Thinking about how a Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle would appear in 2010 gave me pause when thinking about giving this book to a child today. I'm not sure the stories would be as appealing now as they were to me then (since, when I was 7, I concentrated mostly on how silly the children were and all the delights of the infinitely patient, understanding, and wonderful Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle). I think I'll hunt down the rest of the books and, one day when a particular child is a little older, pass them along as historical documents.

Show Less

From her upside-down house, the eccentric Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle issues to parents her marvelous cures for such common children's diseases as Won't-Put-Away-Toys-itis, Answerbackism, and Fighter-Quarrelitis.

I remember reading this as a kid, and it was one of my favorite books. It was fun with a lot of advendture

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is an odd lady who children love. She has cures for children's diseases like not cleaning their room or just bad behavior in general. It is a funny book and very enjoyable to read.

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle was used as a read aloud to my third graders. This is a great way for them to think about themselves and how would they feel if they did some of these things. I enjoyed this chapter book and the ideas to use throughout the classroom. It's a great way to introduce response to

Show More

reading and incorporate writing workshop into daily 5. Also, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle has a little humor to the chapters which make it interesting for students!

Show Less

It was ok.

This has always been my favorite book. I love how it is written with such whimsical creativity.

An old favorite stands up extremely well, but another entry in the Piggle Wiggle series fails utterly. I can remember reading Mrs. Piggle Wiggle with great joy as a very young reader. And when I revisited her in the original volume, all the reasons for that joy came flooding back to me; her

Show More

upside-down house; her dear departed pirate husband; her quirky costumes; her endless sugar cookies; her enthusiasm for all children's games even when they totally disrupted her home and garden; her wisdom and ingenuity in solving common parenting problems such as "won't pick up toys", "refuses to take a bath" and "never wants to go to bed". The whole book is clever and delightful. In Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's Magic, however, all the cleverness seems to have been used up; we still have parents calling on Mrs. PW to "cure" their children of unwanted habits, but in nearly every case this involves some magic powder blown up their noses or sprinkled in their beds, not the inspired solutions of the first book when radish seeds, graduated sets of dishes and a terribly rude Parrot save the day.
january 2016

Show Less